Ed Anderson

After a four year battle with cancer Ed Anderson got bored, picked up his marbles and went home to hang out with God and family members who made the trip before him.
Ed was born June 26, 1959, in a town at a time and with people around him that made his life look an awful lot like a Norman Rockwell painting.
There were fishing poles, bicycles and early morning rides to West Dam for trout fishing. A stop by the Coffee Cup Café on the way back home to listen to the coffee clutch elders built character and story telling abilities that would serve a lifetime.
Drop off the poles and the fish and you were off again, indeed for most of the day, with a quick stop at somebody’s house for peanut butter and sugar sandwiches and a glass of Kool-Aid around noon.  And it could be darn near anybody’s house because every kid in that town reaped the benefit of having several sets of watchful eyes looking over them.  
Summer nights was kick the can, sleepovers and a movie and 10¢ dried out popcorn from the vending machine at the Harney Theater.  Fall brought back that awful forced learning experience, but also the anticipated wait for deer hunting, ice skating on West Dam or the beaver ponds up the tracks, sledding on pageant or four-mile hill and lots of hot chocolate.
After high school, Ed headed to college, spending his first two years hunting ducks, pheasants, rabbits and ice fishing at South Dakota State University and his last two years at Black Hills State actually studying accounting.
He worked in the financial services industry for a few years and in 1985 met his future wife at the Captain’s Table. In 1987 Ed dutifully followed his future wife to Pierre, married her in 1988 and set to raising two totally awesome, if somewhat lippy, daughters.
Ed worked for a number of organizations over the years, spending most of those years as general manager at South Dakota Rural Electric Association. Ed and Shelly loved raising their girls on the river.  And after 35 years of constant practice toward building their fishing skills, they could proudly attest to being marginally better than when they started.
While it was a great place to raise children and make a living, there was a constant 35-year tug on Ed’s heartstrings to return to the Hills and they made that move in 2021, built a retirement home and pulled up chairs on the deck overlooking an elk and deer filled meadow.
And then cancer showed up with his bag of tricks and challenged Ed to a duel. Because he swore he would, no matter what the outcome, Ed declared victory May 5, 2025.
Ed is survived by his mother, Lois; his loving rock star wife, Shelly; daughters Jordyn (Jayson) Herra of Summerset, S.D., with grandson Myles, Nicole (Michael) Gardner of Rapid City and soon-to- arrive granddaughter; sister, Jackie (Roland) of Custer, S.D., and their children Eric of Rapid City and Aaryn (Morgan) of Margaretaville, N.Y.
A celebration service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 7 at Custer Lutheran Fellowship.
Memorial contributions can be made to Monument Health Cancer Care Institute. While Ed doctored extensively at both CCI and Mayo, a very special and enduring bond formed between Ed and the wonderful caregivers at Monument.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Chamberlain McColley’s Funeral Home in Custer.